By Nelly Ajvasi
My interest started in photography in 2000 when I bought my first camera. Initially, it was for taking pictures for work but soon became interested in taking pictures of people. When I first started, my camera was a film camera and I had to wait for the images to be developed before I could see how they looked. As I was impatient, I decided to also learn the art of developing film. When digital started to really take off, I ditched the film camera and embraced digital technology. As I was now able to see my images straight away, I was able to start working with light in a positive and instant manner. I enjoyed working with light and love it to this day.
When I have a plan for a particular type of shoot, it can take weeks to be completed. Each shoot takes planning to get the model, MUA, and venue, then a few hours shooting, followed by a few hours editing. Sometimes the edit can be a few minutes tweaking a few things such as exposure, white balance etc and sometimes I can spend half an hour on an image. Some friends of mine can spend hours on a single image, building a composition. It takes a lot of practice, but every time I do a shoot, the images just seem to get better and better. Another advantage of shooting so many models is you gain a great network of people to work with. The photography network is extensive and there are so many people out there willing to be part of your projects.
I enjoy location work but really enjoy studio work, once again, I get the chance to manipulate the light to do what I want it to do. Here are some of my favorite images from studio work.
